THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING

Australia, 1998, 94 minutes, Colour,.
Kerry Fox, Kristof Kaczmarek, Evelyn Krape.
Directed by Richard Flanagan.

Richard Flanagan is a Tasmanian writer whose work includes novels and environmental studies. The film, like Flanagan himself, is powerfully Tasmanian. The widescreen photography takes us into the mountains and the wilderness. The decor and settings take us back to the 50s as well as to the recent past. We see country settlements and Hobart. But it is also a story of migrants, the often sad odysseys of displaced and dispossessed people from Europe after the war (and with bitter and tragic memories). They find themselves isolated at the other end of the world.

Yet there were opportunities to make a new life and join the naive and jingoistic nationalism of the Australia of the period. The naturalisation ceremony sequence reminds us of those more simplistic days. While the parent generation could be destroyed by the experience - and this is an important theme, dramatised convincingly by Kristof Kaczmarek whose disappointment in life we watch from the 50s to 1989 - the film focuses on the children and how their life develops in Australia (and having to leave Tasmania, at least for a time).

Kerry Fox, who was so memorable in An Angel at My Table, is the woman who, as she nears 40, has to come back to Tasmania to understand the past, reconcile with her father and find a life for herself. Evelyn Krape as her mentor gives a wonderfully vibrant performance. Flanagan says that all stories are of birth and death (and he comes from the Irish-Catholic? tradition) and he has structured his film and shaped our responses by starting with death and ending, in hope, with birth. A moving Tasmanian story.


1. The writer-director and his work on the novel and the screenplay? Their interrelationship? The literary skills for each?

2. The Tasmanian perspective, the author's background in Tasmania? The themes, plot, characters, issues? The visuals?

3. The title and the theme of complementarity? Sonia and her father both needing each other?

4. The Panavision photography, the Tasmanian highlands, Hobart? The hydro-electric scheme, the village, the hotels? Homes? The Tasmanian highlands? Nature, the scenery, the trees, snow? The characters within this setting - their size in vast nature? The musical score, its moods?

5. The structure of the film: the farewell to Sonia by Maria, her going out into the snow, the quest of the young Sonia? The linear development of Sonia's growth from baby to young girl to teenager to adult? The moving in and out of the time-frames?

6. The prologue, Maria and Sonia? The baby, her mother, Maria singing, saying she was sorry, going out and the baby crying for her? The reprise of the prologue later, following Sonia out into the snow, into the hotel, searching for her father? The later sequence with the truck, the men finding Maria hanging from the tree, the impact and the visuals of the hanging? The fact that this was revealed only towards the end of the film?

7. Maria in herself, her family in Slovenia, the photos? The impact of the war, the revelation of the rape? Everybody in the village knowing? The migration to Australia? Her happiness and unhappiness? In Tasmania, explaining to Sonia with the teapot that it was the upside-down part of the world? Her love for her husband, for her daughter? The impact of the revelation about her death? Sonia and her decision to give birth?

8. Sonia and her search, being seen at three past stages of her life? Small and with her father, the teapot and the smashing of the teapot? Dolls? Sonia at eight, with her father, with the family - and the sexual advances? The family giving the money back to her father? With the women, their prayers, the harsh Catholicism, the Rosary, preparing her Communion dress? Her wanting to make her First Communion? At home, sharing with her father, the building of the house? The working and setting up of the house? Her playing with the neighbouring children, their hesitation, learning about the Vegemite, the baked beans - and serving them for her father? Sonia at 16, her love for her father, at home, his drinking, brutality towards her, using her as a servant to get food for his drinking friends? The slap - and his later explanation that he could not remember? Sonia's decision to leave, getting the bus?

9. The portrait of Sonia's father, in himself, his work on the hydro-electric scheme, his drinking, his comments about his limitations of language and inability to express himself? His friends? Migration to Australia and its effect on him? Relationship with Maria, her death and its effect? His continued drinking? His letting Sonia go to the families? Paying for her upkeep? Bringing her back, the house and the work? His decline as the years went past, cards, drinking, brutality? Her leaving? His not answering her letters? Her coming back and their meeting? His ignoring her? Her next visit, the photos, the truth about Maria? The photos of the grandfather? The friend visiting and persuading him to take stock of himself, his making the gifts for the baby, coming to the city, going to the pub, offering Sonia the presents? His happiness with the birth and a new life?

10. The portrait of the town, the '50s? The people, the naturalisation ceremony out in the bush, the comments on Australian culture and the Queen in the 1950s? The hydro-electric scheme and the pride of people in building it? The stone and the monument?

11. The couple that Sonia was given to? The husband and his irrational suspicions of his wife, the parallel with Sonia's father? In the car, at home, smashing things? The sexual advances? Their recurring in Sonia's dreams? Paying the money back?

12. The women, their care for Sonia, their memories of Maria, devout Catholicism of the time, the praying of the Rosary, their relentless religion? The Communion dress?

13. The kindly neighbouring woman, the children and the playing of the games, creating myths and using their imagination? The Vegemite, the baked beans? The young boy breaking the crockery and her reaction? The children calming her down? Her later coming to help Sonia?

14. Jenje and her husband? The scene in the factory, Sonia finding her? The bond between the two women, her help? Her husband and his comments on her wanting to intervene? The meals? Her husband and his visit to Sonia's father? The discussions, the farewell at the airport? Sonia's return? The continued support, the hospital sequence and her giving her the European food? Her down-to-earth approach, her zest for life, support of Sonia?

15. Sonia's search for an identity, her decision to come back to Tasmania? Kerry Fox and her performance? The silences and what was going on in her mind and heart? The visit to the hydro-electric scheme, going back to the house, the tree where her mother had killed herself, the teapot and putting it together? Pregnant, absent father, lack of money, her life in Sydney? The decision to have an abortion? The airport, her decision to return? Going to the house and setting it up again? Going to work in the pub? Visiting her father and talking about the pregnancy? Her father's visit, the giving of the gifts, the reconciliation?

16. The themes of death and birth? The birth and new life? A basic optimism for the continuing of the generations and good overcoming evil?

17. The European style of the film? Europe in the Antipodes? A Tasmanian perception of history and cultural understanding?